NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Travel

France: At the top of the food chain

By Peter Calder
Herald online·
26 Apr, 2010 04:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

On my last night in the city of Bordeaux, I had the sole unpleasant experience of a three-week trip to France: a waiter whose high-handedness was so extreme it verged on caricature.

"Could I get another glass of that?" I said, pointing to my glass as he relaid the table
next to me. We were alone on the terrace, he and I; he could not have been in any doubt who I was talking to. But without a word or so much as a glance (did I detect the trace of a sigh?), he turned and went inside, emerging a few minutes later with the wine and placing it, mutely, before me.

It degenerated into a bit of a competition as the evening wore on: I asked for things in my most careful French, always prefacing my requests with phrases like, "I am most enormously sorry to disturb you..." and he always complied - slowly, silently and sullenly, and without eye contact.

I had the last word by ostentatiously depositing a 20 cent tip on the table in front of him as I left, after telling his (bilingual, Surrey-born) boss that the man needed to consider a new career.

French waiters - caricatures aside - are mostly courteous and efficient, particularly in Bordeaux (which is the name of the city and the region). This is a part of the country whose very name smells of wine - as you drive through the countryside, road signs everywhere are cluttered with fabled names like Pauillac and St Emilion - but where they take food very seriously indeed. Sauce bordelaise, made with beef marrow, red wine and shallots, which pools around the meats in the classic beef dishes of the region, is probably the most famous sauce of its kind in French regional cuisine. It may have escaped my last-night friend, but waiters stand at the end of a long line leading from producer to plate.

A Sunday morning market set up on the banks of the Garonne, the river that runs through the city, underlined the point: the rabbits still had their fur, the birds their feathers and the fromageries put me in mind of Charles de Gaulle's complaint about the impossibility of governing a country that has 246 kinds of cheese (that number is now more than 1000).

In pedestrian-only Rue St Remi that evening, as I look for a promising place for dinner, the air is intoxicating with the smell of good cooking.

The Brasserie Bordelaise has been recommended and does not disappoint. The place is heaving but the staff are friendly and obliging, unlike my mate up the road, and the 24 set menu - a sort of jellied cod terrine and simple half roast chicken - is sublime.

The next day I am in Bergerac, the market town at the heart of the Dordogne.

I am interested to learn that Cyrano de Bergerac, the dramatist and duellist who was fictionalised as the long-nosed pining lover of Roxanne, never so much as set foot in the town, but rather hijacked its name to create his own faux nobility. That hasn't stopped the good people of Bergerac from erecting not one, but two statues to the bloke.

Of more interest to me is the very much alive Stephane Cuzin, whose restaurant La Table du Marche is, as its name suggests, straight across the street from the bustling town market. Cuzin, who worked at very famous, very posh and very expensive La Maison Blanche in Paris, goes for a much more approachable recipe here. He's the very model of the portly, cheerful, aproned chef-patron, welcoming customers as he presides in his small open kitchen.

He's equally welcoming to an inquisitive journalist who tries to keep out of the way while playing a (very small) part in the preparation of vanilla-flavoured carrots.

These will accompany my lunch of duck breast and the half-bottle of a nice Pecharmant, the merlot-predominant wine from the hills just northeast of town. Cuzin specialises in taking visitors through the entire cooking process, from shopping for ingredients and making stocks to preparing and serving their own meal.

That night, a few dozen kilometres to the west, I am staying near the tiny village of Saussignac. The only restaurant in town rejoices in the grand name Le Lion d'Or (The Golden Lion), but it's a modest, low-ceilinged room. And the food is perfect: a fragrant mushroom soup and a juicy rack of lamb. As I finish the last mouthful, I remember a waiter called Max, who served me at Bouchon, the French place in Kingsland, many years ago.

"I come from the Dordogne," he said proudly, by way of reassuring me I was in safe hands, "It is the centre of the French gastronomy." Having been there and checked it out, I can't argue with that.

Peter Calder explored Bordeaux and the Dordogne in a car supplied by Renault Eurodrive. Rates for medium- or long-term hire can be significantly better than rental car rates, but arrangements must be made before you arrive in Europe. Contact renaulteurodrive.co.nz or phone 0800 807 778.

Discover more

Travel

England: Market research

25 Apr 04:00 PM
Travel

France: The art of drinking anything at all

26 Apr 02:00 PM
Travel

Cinque Terre: Hiking the Italian Riviera

29 Apr 03:37 AM
Travel

Cordoba: A world away

03 May 02:24 AM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Travel

Travel

'Covered with bites': Auckland hostel issued cleansing order for bedbugs

04 Jul 05:00 PM
Travel

Cemeteries worth making a stop at in Europe

03 Jul 08:00 AM
Travel

Husband’s oversight grounds Auckland woman’s 60th Hawaii holiday – but he still goes

03 Jul 06:30 AM

One pass, ten snowy adventures

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Travel

'Covered with bites': Auckland hostel issued cleansing order for bedbugs

'Covered with bites': Auckland hostel issued cleansing order for bedbugs

04 Jul 05:00 PM

An enforcement officer confirmed the presence of bedbugs at the accommodation.

Cemeteries worth making a stop at in Europe

Cemeteries worth making a stop at in Europe

03 Jul 08:00 AM
Husband’s oversight grounds Auckland woman’s 60th Hawaii holiday – but he still goes

Husband’s oversight grounds Auckland woman’s 60th Hawaii holiday – but he still goes

03 Jul 06:30 AM
The Kiwi still teaching Aussies to wave after 30 years

The Kiwi still teaching Aussies to wave after 30 years

03 Jul 05:31 AM
Your Fiordland experience, levelled up
sponsored

Your Fiordland experience, levelled up

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP